Cardrian monsters are monsters that can be summoned out of cards. Max Starr decides to walk in his missing father's footsteps and become the best Cardrian Master ever. Does he have what it takes to train his new monsters?

His card reader glowed and a feminine voice came out of it. "Affirmative. Card reader activated. Searching name database. Found. Joseph Maxwell Starr. Son of Arthur Starr."

Wolf looked up with wide eyes as passerbys stopped in their tracks. "Did I just hear Arthur Starr?"

"Yeah. That's my dad."

"You're the son of the greatest Cardrian Master ever?!"

"I guess."

"AND YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO ACTIVATE YOUR CARDRIANS?!"

"I was too young to remember," Max said, looking around nervously as everyone stared. He could hear whispers of Arthur Starr reverberating throughout the crowd.

"Duelist and id number locked. System activated." The cardrian reader underwent a metamorphosis. Lines along it began to glow as it shifted and became a glove that snapped onto his hand and the reader slide shifted to attach to the outside edge of the glove on his arm. "Duelist ready to play."

"That's an interesting reader there, kid. It's unlike everyone else's. The fact that it connected to the network makes it legit. But, who made it?"

"I did," Mr. Fitzgerald walked out of the shop to stand behind Max.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Archie Fitzgerald."

Wolf's eyes bugged. "The living legend himself?!"

"What's he talking about?" Max asked looking up at Mr. Fitzgerald.

"You really are clueless, kid. Ten time world champion, holder of the illusive Dragon Cup, and trainer of Arthur Starr."

"The Dragon Cup?"

"The Dragon Cup is the prize from winning the Dragon Tournament, a tournament that only occurs once every 15 years."

"That's right," came another voice. The same girl who had beaten Wolf and the other duelist appeared out of the crowd. "And I plan on winning it." She walked up to Mr. Fitzgerald. "Hello, grandfather. I'm here for my regular reader checkup."

"Ah, yes, Lilly. I'm sorry. Slipped my mind."

"I told you to call me Lillian in public. Makes me sound tough. I have a reputation to uphold."

Oiwakune lunged forward, biting at Silvercub. Silvercub dodged and rammed it from the side.

"Come on, Silvercub! You can do it!"

Oiwakune was knocked off his feet. He got up and shook himself off as Silvercub pounced on him. They went rolling across the ground snarling and yapping. They sprang off each other and landed across from each other, both panting and glaring at each other.

"So her Cardrian is a legendary, too," Max said, gazing at the fight in wonder. "Silvercub, come here." Silvercub looked at Oiwakune, then at Max, and cautiously walked over to him. "You can understand every word I'm saying, right?" Silvercub nodded. "Then this is what I want you to do." He bent down and whispered in Silvercub's ear.

After Max was done, Silvercub sauntered into the middle of the field and began rolling around playfully. Oiwakune eyed him warily. Then he slowly crept over and sniffed him. Silvercub rolled over to his feet and rammed into Oiwakune's head and jumped away. As Oiwakune sat there dazed, Silvercub opened his mouth.

"Silvercub! Growling Bark!"

A small ball of light erupted from Silvercub's mouth and slammed into Oiwakune, rolling him over and over, until he lay still.

"Very good," Lilly said. "But not good enough." She slid a card across her reader. "Transformation activate!" Oiwakune glowed and then shifted into a bigger version of himself and his horns were now situated over his eyes. "Kowicchikune! Horn Flare!"

Kowicchikune's horns glowed and then shot out giant beams of light and slammed into Silvercub. Silvercub glowed and then became a beam of light that returned to his card.

"What was that about not needing to transform to win?" Wolf asked.

"Regardless, he's going to run into it. If he had a proper deck of cards, he could've used them and possibly still have won."

"I'm sorry, Max," Mr. Fitzgerald said. "Your father didn't cover a deck. He said you had to figure that out on your own. What was it he said? 'Learning is half the fun'? Something like that. It was only your first match. And you held your own quite well. But she is an elite player. You'll get better with time."

Max looked up with a big grin on his face. "That was...AWESOME! I can't wait until I do it again! I'm gonna buy cards and keep trying until I find what suits me. Then I'll become the best. Just like my dad." With that, he walked towards home.

Ending: The Hero Within-James Paget

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